What The Well Dressed Workman Is Wearing - Today.

Any Wodehouse fan will confirm to you that Bertie Wooster once wrote an article titled ‘What The Well-Dressed Man Is Wearing’ for his Aunt Dahlia’s weekly newsletter ‘Milady's Boudoir’. His journalistic credentials for such an assignment were suspect. In fact it is well documented that Aunt Agatha believed that he looked like 'moulded jelly' and Jeeves often looked askance at his sartorial choices. But Bertie was still man enough to take on this onerous task at the behest of the genial Aunt Dahlia.

Writing about dress codes for the working male in this blog, makes me feel very akin to Bertie Wooster on his journalistic debut – a feeling of having inadequate qualifications for the job but brave enough to write on it based on a conversation I had with someone on Facebook (let’s call her Aunt Dahlia too).

What a Wodehouse fan will also tell you is that, when it comes to writing a blog, it is difficult to know where to begin. How much of a background does one attempt to give? Spend too much time in coming to the p and one finds that the readers have toodle-hoo’d away to other posts or have switched to watching cute kitten videos instead. But if one spends too little a time in setting the context, and you have them coming at you with puzzled faces and raised hands begging for clarifications. One must therefore strike the right balance.

So, by way of context it is necessary but suffice to say that what follows later in this blog was triggered by a news item last month which reported that a young IAS was officially pulled up and warned in writing for behaviour “…unbecoming of a member of the [Civil] service.” His offence was that he was not dressed in formals while welcoming PM Modi. An offence further compounded by the fact that he wore sunglasses. This (or so some people quoted in the news item implied) was against dress code for bureaucrats. 

I sought to confirm this from my friends in the civil services on FB. These (otherwise voluble) friends, chose to remain silent. But not Aunt Dahlia. She is not one who will hold back her views on any topic easily. And this topic seemed close to her heart. So before the sun had set we had exchanged several inbox messages and clearly established our divergence of views. The scope of the discussion had expanded beyond the appropriateness of the reprimand to dress codes in corporates, diplomacy, bureaucracy, defence services and other similar work places. What these should be and how they are changing.

Seeking wider consultations I present below my side of the discussions.

First up are the easy ones – Dress codes for Defence Services (and red carpet celebrity events if you will). Not much of a debate here. Pomp away as much you want and prescribe to your hearts galore. Court martial the deviants. I won’t raise an eyebrow.

Close on the heels are the Diplomatic Corps. Formality is de riguer here. So it’s fine if dress codes centre around black suits, ties and the like. Bandhgalas (being perceived more Indian than lapel suits) seem to be preferred by the Indian lot. So be it. I have no major issues with the current trends. (Except that embossing your name on pin stripes should be a strict no no).

But even in the otherwise stiff collars of the diplomatic circles one can’t help noticing the informality which is creeping into the diplomatic communications. Much has been written about Modi’s calling Obama by his first name and his twitter diplomacy. Will we see some of this informality creeping into the dress codes? Difficult to say. I think – yes – in a very gradual way.    

Let’s now turn to dress codes and trends in the corporate and bureaucratic world. Here is where Aunt Dahlia and I start walking different paths.

Contrary to what Aunt Dahlia may like to see happening, the trend in Corporate dressing is clearly towards greater informality. Ties are disappearing fast from executive wardrobes – even when jackets are worn - replaced sometimes by pocket squares. Jackets when worn are no longer only black, blue or grey. They come in many hues and textures. Footwear is no longer limited to leather (but thankfully no sneakers). 

But what is getting the purist's goat is that Jeans and T-shirts are increasingly getting acceptable at the corporate workplace. We, in our company, liberalised to allow this attire two years back (with some restrictions like collar T-shirts only and NO sneakers).  Our target customer segment is mainly youth and we figured that we can’t be going very wrong if we start dressing a bit like them. Slowly we started noticing that we aren’t the only ones. Even large B2B companies have liberalised dressing codes. The latest example is Infosys which abolished dress codes this week and welcomed in Jeans and T-Shirts.

"From Monday, June 1, 2015….your favorite pair of jeans teamed with that t-shirt you love can now be worn every day, going forward. This was a change that many of you had voiced and requested on various platforms, so we are really excited that it is official now!"

(Excerpt from the email sent by Infosys to all its employees this week)

This change is not surprising. It is in line with the informal styles of written official communication. Emails have shed the legacy of pompous salutations. Text and what’s app messages are replacing emails. Smileys creep in once in a while. Every corporate worth its name is tweeting and has an active Facebook page. With young corporate honchos ruling the roost the ubiquitous ‘sir’ is being replaced by first names. Try picturing an executive in a pin stripe suit and stiff collared white shirt sending what’s app messages to a customer or tweeting about his latest product and the incongruity becomes apparent.  

Which brings me to issue which triggered this blog – Should the young IAS officer have been penalised of the transgression?  Or more generally dress code for the bureaucracy.

The bureaucracy is at the crossroads and is having some difficulty in deciding which way to go. Should they model themselves on the defence services and the diplomatic corps and stay with strong hierarchical and formal structures or should it keep pace with the corporate world whom they encounter more frequently face to face these days than ever earlier. To me the answer seems clear. It has to be the latter. With everyone and his aunt in the world chasing growth and investment, the role of the government is getting redefined as an enabler rather than of a controller. Their dress code should reflect that. However with mindsets, rules and processes shaped and anchored in the pre-independence era, it is not surprising that they are finding it difficult to climb the hump. As is the purist in Aunt Dahlia.

Bertie Wooster : ‘There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself, "Do trousers matter?"'

Jeeves : ‘The mood will pass, sir.’

(The Code of the Woosters)

 This conversation was in 1938. I wonder whose side you are on today. Bertie’s or Jeeves’.